Since You've Been Home

Our first few days home were...emotional. Luckily, by kid three, Justin and I expected the tears and laughed through each episode. It's ridiculous, really. All I'd have to say to start a crying meltdown was, "I feel like...." even if it was just to say, "I feel like nachos tonight" or "I feel like it would be faster to get on the freeway". Just starting a sentence with 'i feel' was enough. J thought it was hilarious, which would start me laughing, and we got through it.

Enough about me, how's the baby? That little man! (seriously, he kinda looks like a little old man) He makes me want to have more!! He's what my brother-in-law, Jer, would call, 'The Trick'. You know, the easy baby that tricks you into having another :)

This is the little worried face I see on Bennett so often these days. I'd look like that too if my big sister (HAYDEN!!) was silently and sneakily trying to cut off my air supply every day.

The next two pictures are from the rainy afternoon we brought Bennett home.

She figured out right away the joy of snuggling a newborn and enjoying a show. This is a whole new experience--having a baby and a sibling old enough to hold him for a time. Now if I could just get my hands on an eight year old....

Perfect! My sister, Koryn, flew out for a week with her daughter, Whitney.
This picture cracks me up: Whitney navigating the capriciousness of the two-year old and Abbey sulking in the background.




My beautiful sister is the greatest; the greatest conversationalist, the greatest cook, the greatest baby snuggler. I mentioned something on facebook about her being in town and my cousin, Jen, wrote, "You got Koryn?!" Yes. Yes, I got Koryn. :) I started feeling down days before she left, just knowing the visit was coming to an end. Thank you, thank you Koryn!! Now come back :)

Did you know it's taken me a week and a half to do this post? I kept wondering why I can't express my thoughts at all right now. I wanted to jot down what life has been like the past few weeks and I can't. Because time right now is in little chunks, small bits of time in between interruptions and satisfying demands, especially since the accident. My mind is a bit off. In fact, two of the last three shirts I've worn were inside out all day.

But some quick things I want to remember:

--Abbey giving Bennett hugs and kisses every morning and predictably saying, "Mom! Isn't he the cutest baby you ever had?"

--J showing the girls clips of the Royal Wedding and all the questions that came with it: "Is she a real princess?" "Can she talk?" "So...is there a witch?"



--Resting Bennett's head in the crook of my neck while I read or watch a show. He fits so perfectly right now.

--Him falling asleep in about two seconds if I put him in a baby sling and carry him around the house.

--Oh. That face.

--The girls clinging to me just a moment longer than usual when we hug.

--Hayden thinking I feed Bennett through my bicep and insisting she can help out and feed him with her arm as well.

--Overhearing J tell someone why we named him Bennett. According to him, we named him after a sweet old man he used to visit and play checkers with at a nursing home he went to weekly in college. What?!

--Feeling a lot of love from and for my awesome husband. You don't realize how much someone does around the house until you are frantically trying to cover their responsibilities. It's hard for me to see him in pain and it's hard for him to see me...crazy. At the end of the day, we almost simultaneously say, "I'm so sorry, that was a hard day, are you ok?" Man, I love that man.